They played on an aircraft carrier. They played on national television. And 15 times, they played in a sold-out Viejas Arena.

For San Diego State men’s basketball players, the 2012-2013 season was a parade through the streets of popularity, where thousands of the west coast’s rowdiest fans wielded giant cardboard cutouts and shouted triple-decibel chants toward athletes they deemed nothing short of royalty.

Not bad for the 12th most accomplished team on campus.

That’s right – to call 2012-2013 a banner year for San Diego State athletics would be a flagrant understatement. On the Mesa, this was the banner year.

From fall to spring, the Aztecs collected a school-record 12 Mountain West titles – seven more than last year, six more than SDSU’s previous high, and seven more than any other school in the conference.

Say what you will about the city of San Diego being a repellent for championships. For a certain university off Campanile Drive, championships have been rolling through like bulls in Pamplona.

“I’ve never been associated with anything like it,” said SDSU football coach Rocky Long, who has coached in some capacity at seven different universities. “To win (12) titles in one year – I don’t think there are very many people associated with any athletic department that have even come close to that.”

If you include postseason tournaments, there were 24 conference titles up for grabs among the nine schools in the Mountain West. San Diego State won half of them.

Football, volleyball, women’s basketball, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, and softball, each won regular-season titles. Swimming and diving, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field all took first in their championship meets. Baseball came up short in the regular season but won its conference tournament, while women’s soccer captured both regular-season and conference-tournament titles.

Throw in 11 NCAA Tournament bids and 10 Coach of the Year honors, and suddenly SDSU is California’s plaque and trophy Mecca.

There are two ways to react to this. One is to say that the Aztecs not only exceeded expectations, but lapped them three times. The other is to say that, after years of separation, expectations were finally met.

San Diego State’s facilities and budget, after all, are on par with any of its Mountain West contemporaries. And while Albuquerque, Laramie and Fresno are no doubt majestic, they don’t quiiiiiite measure up to SDSU location-wise.

So considering the conference is now without BYU, TCU and Utah – each of which had the potential to dip into the Aztecs’ title total – you could argue that a double-digit championship count should mark a standard, not standout year at San Diego State. And to that, I would sophisticatedly reply: “Debbie, is Downer your parents’ or husband’s last name?”

What SDSU did this past sports year was utterly exceptional. To double the school record and claim half of all available conference titles is a study in success.

But there was a romantic element to the Aztecs’ triumphs that went beyond absolute domination. As they said in “Gladiator,” don’t just win, entertain – and entertain they did.